Cromwell's speech team takes third

Cromwell earned third place out of 21 trams at the Section 7A Speech Tournament held April 5 at Hibbing Community College.

Cromwell earned third place out of 21 teams at the Section 7A Speech Tournament held on Friday, April 5, at Hibbing Community College. Blackduck was the section champion and Duluth Marshall was the runner-up.

Warpula is making her third appearance at State. She also qualified for the National Individual Events Tournament of Champions (NIETOC) in San Antonio, Texas, on May 9 with her Drama piece.

Koenig is performing a woman on the brink of sanity in "The Care and Feeding of Baby Birds." Dickey is performing a woman artist who reveals a shocking moment of her life in "Sarah’s Red." Collman is performing a self-written story about a woman’s escape from bondage called "Hand in Hand." Warpula will be performing stories from the book "Grimm's Tales for the Young and Old." Rauvola will be researching and answering questions from current domestic events.

Cromwell entered 23 speakers at sections and qualified eight to the finals. Lenore Collman and Kayle Johnson earned fourth place in Duo Interpretation, missing State by one spot and Olivia Warpula earned sixth place in Humor.

Brian Schilling is the head coach of the speech team, along with assistant coach Jeanne Weimer. "It was a bittersweet section contest as we witnessed new stars rise on the team and final performances from our seniors. We commend our seniors for paving a path for future generations of talented speakers at Cromwell. Our program is strong and will continue with a strong group of underclassmen. We have over 30 speech members in a high school of 131 students," stated Schilling.

The State Speech Tournament will be held on Saturday, April 20, at Blaine High School in Blaine. It is free and open to the public.

The Cromwell Speech Team will hold a community performance on Friday, April 12, at 6:30 p.m. in the school auditorium. An additional performance is set for Wednesday, April 17, starting 6 p.m. at the Villa Vista in Cromwell. A school performance for students and a send off for the team to State will also be held.

More information about the State Tournament can be found on the mshsl.org website.